Michele Lai surely could be named parent of the year. In teaching her children about charity and giving back, she has also turned them into authors. The mother of two is a big supporter of Room to Read, the organisation started by John Wood, who gave up a lucrative career at Microsoft to build schools for underprivileged children. Lai has put together Kids4Kids, a series of five books all written by local children. Each contains drawings by children and a story on some goal they have achieved. Empowering and inspiring, the books not only offer a great read for children, but all the proceeds will go to Room to Read.

'The idea came from my son Jaq,' Lai said. 'We've been donating money for Christmas and birthday presents to the less fortunate, so I explained the story of John Wood to him and he started drawing pictures. Then he asked, 'Mummy, can you put words to it'. I did, and then I thought, wouldn't it be great to use kids' stories to make a difference?'

Jaq, along with sister Alysha, ended up contributing a tome, along with four other books collected after a competition among local schools. 'We ended up with 500 submissions and it wasn't just international schools but local ones, too.'

The Kids4Kids collection of bilingual books was launched at Anahata Yoga last week. Not bad for a stay-at-home mum.

Each book costs HK$100 and you can order a copy through www.havenbook sonline.com.